Come what May, the 100th post on this blog

Well Mina, it’s happened. I’ve reached 100 posts (well technically 104, if you count this post). A little re-cap. When I restarted my blog (after being with roccosanimejournal for year and a half), waaaaaaaaay back in May, I wasn’t exactly sure as to how well it it will fare. To see it come this far in a short space of time. Goes beyond my expectation. So I’m a bit chuffed at the moment (*this* blog has fared a lot better than roccosanimejournal).

So I will be posting up some general helpful tips to give some new bloggers or older ones, a general idea on how they can start up or improve their existing blog.

Re-evaluating my approach to anime reviewing:

The main reason as to why I left my other blog. Is in the fact that, I never had a clear approach to anime reviewing. I was never happy with it. I constantly changed my approach, never settling on a fixed way. By having an unsettled approach, the blog suffered. Because of it. After checking out some other blogs to give me inspiration. I had an idea, as to how I wanted to go about doing my reviews. It was clear as day in my mind – before I started up this one, mind you. I consulted with my childhood friend, and even he said “it’s better to start again, than constantly changing”. So with heavy heart I left the other blog. And started this brand, spanking, shiny new blog. Thematically I stuck with the same blog theme. As I’m used to it. So I went about on my new blog, (artificially) padding it out with some older posts from the other blog. Whilst trying out the new format / approach. And as I viewed it in real time, I found myself happy with the new format / approach. Never have a “perfect” format / approach as the next bit explains…

Tip: Have a clear idea as to how you want to approach or do an anime review before you start a blog.

Shifting, Shunting & Tweaking:

As I wrote more and more on this blog. The posts piled up. In order to keep my blog from being too dis-organised. I kept them under a general category (no sub category). This helped in one way, but it made looking for things a tad problematic – when looking for specific things that is. It made it look more cluttered, rather being organised. Even though it took me a while to get around too. I broke down posts in to sub-categories. You can take a look around the blog to see what I mean. Before they were just there. Now it makes the blog, look neat and organised. The real difference is in the episodic reviews. Now on to writing reviews..

I’ll admit, my reviewing technique is very inconsistent. At first, I used to just write and ended up giving away spoilers (unintentionally). Twice, I was told I’m giving away spoilers. So I then followed tips & guidelines, and to be honest. It has helped, a lot. But it did increase my word count. I also took on board the other criticism my friend gave me, I didn’t use images – posts were just large blocks of texts. So with that in mind, I went about taking my own screen shots. And adding them to my blog posts. I have a blast, getting screen shots. This ties in to the next thing. As I wrote my reviews, I re-evaluated the format I chose. I am happy with the way it is, but I also wanted to improve on it. So after some shifting here & there with image placement. And using bold – coloured texts, I’m confident with the way it is. I feel it is in a good place. The one thing that my blog suffered from, is the length of the post. Before whenever a post went up, if you wanted to get to the bottom of the blog, you had to scroll down the entire blog just to get to it. Just recently I’ve learned where and what the “Read More Tag” is. And it is a god send.

Tip: De-clutter your blog. Have your blog content be in the spot light for your readers / visitors. Shift less meaningful info elsewhere or remove them entirely. Make your blog simpler to navigate around. Use the read more tag, to shorten the length of your blog posts.

Customise your blog:

Guys don’t use the default settings for your blogs theme. Customise the layout of your blog. Get to grips with it. Play around with it. See what works and what doesn’t. For example, when one of my follower(s) leave a comment. Rather than seeing the default “Leave a reply”, I’ve changed that to “A comfy little roost” (this will be changing at some point). I’m also using more of the other post formats. Rather than just using “standard”, I’ve started to use things like quote, image and now video. Play around with it. See what works, if you’re happy with it, good. If you prefer to stick with the way it is, that’s fine.

Tip: Get to grips with your blog theme. And play around with it. Make that theme “yours”. This with the above tip, should make your blog presentable and eye catching for new followers or potential readers.

I don’t want to make this blog post too long, I would have liked to added more tips, but with more posts to be written up pushing this post fur away from the “100th” post. I do apologise if this post seemingly cuts off abruptly. Also not to repeat what more established bloggers have written up.

So with that guys, I hope you find this post informative at least. And I’ll catch you next time guys ;).

2 thoughts on “Come what May, the 100th post on this blog”

Hmm, I can’t remember if I’ve changed my “leave a reply” message yet, but I really ought to if I haven’t. Very interesting . . . Moreover:
CONGRATULATIONS ON 100 WHOMPING POSTS!!! *digs out platters of cakes, cookies, breads, sodas, candies* We must celebrate this joyous occasion! I’m overly glad that you made the decision to start fresh with this new blog. I do say, I rather like the appealing format ^.^ We should be thanking YOU for all of this wonderful content and helpful tips! Here’s to 100 and 100 more, cheers! *drinks heartily*